Ryanair aims to increase flights this month    

Photo: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Ryanair will increase flights to over 60% of its normal schedule throughout August following what it said was a successful resumption of services at 40% of capacity last month following Covid-19 lockdowns.

Europe’s biggest budget airline flew 4.4 million passengers in July, a broadly expected 70% year-on-year fall. 

It slashed its target for the financial year to March 2021 to 60 million passengers last month, from the 80 million forecast in May. “Since the resumption of our schedule in late June, passenger numbers have continued to grow,” Eddie Wilson, chief executive of Ryanair’s main airline unit, said in a statement, saying traveller confidence was returning.

Meanwhile, Lufthansa put German workers on notice of compulsory lay-offs, saying tumbling air travel and slow progress in union negotiations meant cuts were unavoidable after it lost €1.7bn in a single quarter.

The German airline, which secured a €9bn state bailout in June, flew just 4% of prior-year passengers between April and June as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and expects capacity to increase to only around 50% by the end of the year and two-thirds of last year’s level in 2021.

Its outlook is more pessimistic than rivals such as Air France-KLM, which expects to fly 80% of its pre-crisis flights next year, and IAG, which forecasts capacity to be 24% lower in 2021. 

- Reuters